MINIMUM STANDARDS OR IDEALS?

The nagging question that always seems to haunt me when I read these various codes of ethics is this: are these guidelines for the minimum standard of acceptable behaviour below which a practitioner could presumably be censured by the organization, or are they merely a set of articulated ideals towards which we, as members of that organization, ought to strive, presumably falling short from time to time? It occurs to me that those members who have been engaged in developing these codes consider them to be the minimum standards; however, given the lack of teeth that the codes seem to have, they appear to the public to be nothing more than wishful thinking. There is a faint hope that perhaps members will strive to meet these lofty ideals. So arises the debate: do we really need these codes at all or are they simply window-dressing?